Family

I am a mother of two beautiful girls; I considered them both my blessings in disguise. I became a single mother with my first born at a relatively young age; my first experience with motherhood has allowed me to grow into a stronger and wiser individual. During my first pregnancy and early years of motherhood, I had a tendency of occupying my mind with negative thoughts that were consuming my life. I struggled with the thought of becoming a young mom and feared not being able to be that perfect mother, even though there is no such thing as a perfect parent. Being a parent is a gift that should be cherished and appreciated. There are many unfortunate couples who are unable to experience the joys of parenthood due to many reasons, some by being unable to conceive due to hormonal problems, poor lifestyle choices, immune system diseases etc. Some have spent their life savings on various procedures hoping to conceive, and others by paying a large sum to surrogates to help them start a family.

Sometimes our lives do not go as planned but the challenges we go through do teach us some valuable and important lessons. At times our blessings are disguised as an obstacle which is meant to strengthen our faith but we focus so much on the problem itself that we make no attempt to come up with a solution. Have you ever been in a stressful situation and at the end when everything was taken care of you realized that all the unnecessary stress was not worth it?

One of my favorite quotes which I strongly believe in says “we don’t meet people by accident, they are meant to cross our path for a reason”. I will forever be grateful for a wonderful friend that crossed my path twelve years ago; he recommended that I read “Every word has power” by Dr. Yvonne Oswald. The book stresses the importance of the selection of words we use on a daily basis and how choosing our words can impact every aspect in our lives in a positive way. After reading her book my perception on life changed tremendously, I’ve learned to embrace, appreciate and cherish this gift we call life. Most importantly I had to retrain myself to speak and think positively by choosing uplifting words instead of negative words that I was accustomed to. The book also helped me to let go of the past and focused on the future which was extremely difficult at first, but speaking positively into my life and situation daily allowed me to let go of my past and accept the fact that I have a little girl that’s depending on mommy to take care of her.

There are days when we take the blessing of a child for granted maybe because life may be a little hard on us and we’re struggling to make ends meet. You may be a single parent who is making every effort to hold your family together or even a couple who may be going through some financial or emotional stress. During these stressful times, we tend to pass on our frustrations on our children which sometimes may cause them to doubt our love for them.

Regardless of the hardship, we may face as parents, we cannot allow our situation to prevent us from being the best Parent we can be. Always speak life and positivity into your situation and never allow your children to feel like they are a burden, neglected and most of all unloved.

As parents, we play an important role in our children’s lives. It is our responsibility to protect, communicate, and educate them about what is going on in our society. It is imperative for them to be aware of their surroundings and the company they keep. Your son’s or daughter’s acquaintances can have a major influence on them. There have been countless cases on the news about sexual abuse, we have read about it in the papers, and I have seen firsthand the effect that it has on our loved ones.

In spite of all this, sexual abuse has remained one of the most unspoken topics among families in our society. There are churches and other organizations that have failed to report an abuser in order to save their reputation or avoid prosecution. Read more…